More info on Pediatric Neurology??

[tatabox80]

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Hey there,
I'm just going to be a second year medical student, but does anyone know where I can learn more about this specialty? I'm interested in both neuro and peds at this point and just wanted to learn more.

 

[WizardHowl]

I'm going to be a freshmen undergrad, but I shadowed a pediatric neuro, and I extremely loved this profession. I would also like to know more about this. Are programs really hard to get into if you aren't exactly the smartest person... (just average?) I eventually want to move to California so will be getting a california residency be hard (in general, also in terms of peds neuro?) thanks!

 

[jacksmak]

Pediatric Neurology is generally filled with competitive applicants because only a certain type of person is willing to do it, but it is noncompetitive tin the sense that programs really don't fill. One has to be able to deal with some of the saddest cases in medicine in children with untreatable neurodegenerative disorders or severe cerebral palsy. However, what most don't realize is that the hard cases are broken up by relatively well children(i.e. epilepsy) who respond to medical therapy. Ten or twenty years down the road, treatment may actually become much more possible.
Actually, Pediatric neurology does have a centralized application service through the San Francisco Match for the first time this year. Child neuro can be entered in 3 ways. The most common is 2 years of pediatric residency followed by 3 years of a child neurology residency. You can also to one year of pediatric residency and one year of medicine. This option was created for those who decided on child neurology during Neurology residency. Their is also a reasearch track that just requires one year pediatrics and one year reasearch. These programs are all integrated and for those who want a research career rather than a clinical.
These prerequirements have led to some really screwy politics. Hopefully, the match will force more neurology and pediatric departments to cooperate in order to survive. When I first applied to pediatrics, combined programs existed but really were not advertised. Generally the school you were at had to have an understanding between child neuro and pediatrics to allow the peds program to adjust their rank list for letting in the local candidate. Anywhere else, it was, and to some degree still is, important to downplay your interest in child neuro because peds programs do not want to lose you for the PGY-3 year and therefore have disincentive to rank you. Now there are several programs at the SF match that are advertising combined spots in which you match early in child neuro and then must rank the peds program in the NMRP. These programs would probably be the most ideal for anyone interested in child neuro from medical school. I would predict they will also end up the most competitive.
For more information you can visit www.childneurologysociety.org or go to the early match site at www.sfmatch.com